TITLE: Ruins in a lost civilization
NAME: Tim Anderson?
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: ande8545@blue.unco.edu
WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/vine/4299/index.html
TOPIC: Imaginary Worlds
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: lostruin.jpg
ZIPFILE: lostruin.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Nathan O'Brien's square column (13col3) include file
          Chris Colefax's galaxy include file
          Nathan O'Brien's column (13_col) include file
          Chris Colefax's Lens Flare include file
          Adobe Photoshop for resizing and tga/jpg transformation

RENDER TIME: 
    2 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds

HARDWARE USED: 
    IBM Aptiva

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 

        Some quotes from an imaginary explorer's journal from an imaginary
world:

        Day 354-I still have had no luck in finding the ancient ruins of the
Naruzota tribe.  I strongly feel that if I persevere, I will uncover the ruins
and the supposed secret of our solar system.

        Day 355-I think that I'm getting close to the truth.  Today I found the
legendary Mask of the Emperor Ferwilak.  I feel as if I'll find it within the
week.

        Day 362-I finally found them!  They were hidden behind the pyramids,
just west of the cave of Clepreti.  The Naruzota columns were so amazing!!  The
ground mist on our planet didn't even touch them as they were floating over the
ground.  FLOATING!!!  They were so incredible that I almost missed what I came
here for: the secret of our solar system.  But I saw the truth: All of the
planets in our solar system aren't really even planets.  In fact, they are all
gigantic spaceships built by ancient Naruzotan cultures!

        Yup!  That's the story!

        Now that you've seen my image, it should be incredibly obvious that I am
still a beginner.  Please give me some comments again, the ones that you gave
me last time were EXTREMELY helpful!!!  Thanks, and good luck to all entrants!
     

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 

        First of all, I would like to thank Nathan O'Brien for letting me use
his columns (13_col) include file, and for his square columns (13col3) include
file.  Quite obviously, that's where the main focus of the image came from!

        Next, I would like to thank Chris Colefax for use of his galaxy include
file, and for use of his lens flare include file.  I used the galaxy include to
create a background, and the lens flare to make a star and a sun.

        Although the background was made mostly with the galaxy include, it also
has a translucent (0.95) blue fog added for effect.

        Other than that, the planets were all made using basic spheres.  The
inner spheres each have their own texture, whereas the outer spheres are made
with the same glass texture.  In fact, there is a glass sphere over most of the
picture.  There is supposed to be a fog over Iduniona, the closest planet.

        Essentially, I took this, set it together in POV-Ray, and this is what
came out!  It was originally rendered at a size of 1024x768, then I shrunk it
down in Adobe Photoshop.

